The archived blog of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).

Apr 29, 2010

What Congress Can Do to Enhance Government Transparency: A Brief Interview with POGO's General Counsel

This afternoon, POGO General Counsel Scott Amey heads to the Hill for the inaugural event of the new bipartisan Congressional Transparency Caucus. As part of the event, Scott will participate in a panel discussion alongside Daniel Schuman from the Sunlight Foundation, Jerry Brito from the Mercatus Center, and Patrice McDermott from OpenTheGovernment.org.

I asked Scott for a quick preview of what he planned to discuss — what Congress can do to enhance government transparency, the challenges it will face, and what's being overlooked — and you can find our interview below the jump. Below you'll also find details on the event, which is, naturally, open to the public. We've been told to expect a crowd.

POGO blog: What are the most important steps Congress can take to enhance government transparency?

Another key step would be establishing an enhanced executive branch lobbying disclosure system. We know that there's a lot of lobbying that takes place within executive branch agencies, and we need a better system to capture that data.

So much of lobbying is tied to the term "registered lobbyist." Unfortunately companies have realized the loophole in the system. You don't send a lobbyist to do your begging and pleading or sell your goods and services — you send a senior-level official who isn't a registered lobbyist because that person doesn't have to file disclosure forms.

SA:You can legislate something, but the problem is always on the implementation side. How do you get buy-in from public servants and officials? How do you convince them that openness isn't going to be used as a sword to slay them with every time they make some mistake?

The challenge is to get agencies to accept that transparency is there so that we can try to make the government work better, save money, be more efficient, and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse that we know takes place.

POGO blog: Is there one aspect of the transparency debate that isn't getting as much attention as it should?

SA: I think Congress and the judicial branch pay too much deference to executive branch decisions to classify documents or programs. They should go beyond saying "okay, it's classified, I won't ask about it." They should ask "why is it classified?" and "should it be classified?" The same goes for exemptions to FOIA requests — they should be asking, "are these good, worthy exemptions?"

I also wonder if exemptions and fees have a chilling effect on FOIA requests. A lot of people in the media now say they can't submit them — they don't have time. Even people that do investigative reporting still need information in a shorter time frame than what the backlogs at the major agencies allow for. We have a law on the books to obtain information, but it might not be used as much as it could be because of the foot-dragging from the program staff.

POGO blog: To play devil's advocate: why does this transparency stuff matter?

SA: A lot of people in the heartland and elsewhere believe that government
decisions are based on backroom deals and cozy ties — that the public
doesn't have all the information that it should have. At that point it
creates a distrust in government and an integrity problem. It's up to the government to share more information, integrate systems
so they're more user friendly, take advantage of technology, promote a more open agenda. And recent studies have shown that the public really does care about these things.

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Rep. Mike Quigley, D-IL, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA organized and serve as co-chairs of the bipartisan Transparency Caucus. Read their "Dear Colleague" letter inviting Members to join the Caucus here, and read about the seven admirable principles that guide the Caucus here.